Blog

April 17, 2018

Essilor Pledges Eyeglass Lenses to Needy in the Commonwealth

This commitment will leave a legacy of improved vision care infrastructure and in addition, provide 200 million people living below the poverty line with free ophthalmic lenses.

Essilor’s commitment will be made in partnership through the $1bn Vision Catalyst Fund. The Fund is a new initiative under development by The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, civil society and public-private stakeholders, to provide sustainable solutions for eye health to entire populations in Commonwealth countries and around the world.

Chief Executive and Chairman of Essilor International, Hubert Sagnieres, commented: “A simple pair of glasses has the power to change a person’s life and create positive ripple effects on the social and economic development of their community. Much like the ongoing fight to ensure children everywhere in the world are immunized against infectious diseases, civil society and public-private stakeholders must work together to immunize everyone against the negative impact of poor vision by making vision care universally available. We welcome the opportunity to share our unique knowledge with our partners in the Vision Catalyst Fund, and to provide ophthalmic lenses to 200 million people in the Commonwealth living below the poverty line. We are committing to do this by 2030, the year the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals come to end. These efforts represent a huge step forward for Essilor on our journey to eradicate uncorrected poor vision by 2050 and to transform the lives of hundreds of millions of people.”

Dr. Astrid Bonfield CBE, Chief Executive of The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust commented: “We are delighted that Essilor is supporting the Vision Catalyst Fund by committing to both provide 200 million people living below the poverty line with ophthalmic lenses and to continue to build capacity of and access to eye care providers. We are at an historic moment where, thanks to the efforts of a diverse but united community, we have the potential to bring vision to everyone, everywhere within just one generation. Essilor’s visionary commitment is set to be truly transformational and takes us a step forward towards realising our goal of quality eye care being a part of everyday life for everyone.”

Read the complete press release HERE.

April 13, 2018May 20, 2026

Omicron 4: Sleek and Ladylike

Technology, lightness, minimalism: these are the key descriptors for Lightec! This year, the innovative brand is going even further with its new hinge, Omicron.

This new hinge, made up of a single piece, no longer requires a spring: the hinge itself has taken on this role. It allows for easy adjustment of the pantoscopic angle. In keeping with the Lightec DNA, this new hinge lets you catch a glimpse of a fine line of metal on the temple, creating a signature of sorts.

For Omicron 4, Lightec took a risk with the frames, placing very fine stainless steel on the front, with acetate temples.

There are four options for the front of the glasses: Three rectangles, from M to L and a panto style in size M.

For a sophisticated, feminine look, all of the styles have fronts composed of two colours. To add the finishing touch to this current yet distinctive look, the temples have been finely crafted with two layers of stainless steel.

Distributed by Lanctôt: www.rlanctot.com

April 13, 2018April 24, 2018

R.A.C.E Hires Jay Weber as Sponsorship Marketing Manager

Running and Cycling Enterprises (R.A.C.E.), exclusive North American distributors of performance eyewear brand Rudy Project and polarized sport eyewear brand XX2i Optics, recently added Jay Weber to their Denver-based team as Sponsorship Marketing Manager. In this role, Jay will be responsible for managing sponsorship relationships with 400+ teams, organizations and athletes covering a wide swath of sports that count Rudy Project and XX2i Optics as official partners.

Jay comes to R.A.C.E. from XTERRA WETSUITS and XTERRA BOARDS, where he was Western Sales Director. His experience in triathlon not only includes past industry experience, but also many different segments. He is a USA Triathlon Certified Level 1 Coach, and officiates as a Level 2 ITU Technical Official, a Category 3 Official for USA Triathlon, and an official for IRONMAN®. He is also a past race director for the Triathlon Club of San Diego and has been competing in triathlons since 2009.

Through R.A.C.E.’s employee incentive program, Jay is planning on coaching his colleagues as they compete in triathlons and local races all over Colorado. R.A.C.E. is proud to support Jay’s athletic pursuits and those of weekend warriors and professional athletes alike, all over North America.

Click HERE for the full press release.

April 13, 2018

SILMO Paris 2018, So Much More than Just a Fair

SILMO Paris is so much more than a trade fair. As well as providing a complete and comprehensive exhibitor offering, SILMO Paris delivers an ecosystem of services available to all professionals throughout the year… an ecosystem offering high added value that sets it apart and fulfils clearly identifiable actions.

INTERACT via SILMO M@TCH
An app designed to schedule meetings, develop connections and exchanges, discover new products and grow business opportunities.

ACCESS TRAINING via SILMO ACADEMY
Accelerate your skills via training programs.

SHINE via the SILMO D’OR Awards
An iconic award recognising the talent and expertise of an entire industry.

ANTICIPATE via SILMO NEXT
Brand new for 2018: SILMO NEXT spotlights all aspects of forecasting, innovation and market trends.

LIVE THE EXPERIENCE via SILMO LIVE
Enabling services and promotions designed to make the trade fair a unique occasion for both exhibitors and visitors.

LAND more meetings with SILMO FAMILY
Silmo has launched strategic offshoots, creating a network of professional trade fairs: SILMO Istanbul, SILMO Bangkok and SILMO Sydney.

Save the date: September 28 – October 1, 2018

Click HERE for the full press release.

April 12, 2018April 24, 2018

Rapid 3D Printing of Lenses

A method of using a 3D printer to rapidly create small aspheric lenses offers new possibilities for manufacturing customized contact lenses and optical imaging lenses.

Developed by a team at Northwestern University Engineering, the layer-by-layer 3D printing technique is capable of creating a 5 mm in diameter lens in about four hours. The lenses have less than 7 nanometre surface roughness, which means that the standard step of polishing the lens can be omitted.

“Up until now, we relied heavily on the time-consuming and costly process of polishing lenses,” said Cheng Sun, associate professor of mechanical engineering and lead researcher on the project. “With 3D printing, now you have the freedom to design and customize a lens quickly.”

Adding additional transition layers between steps and and treatment with a photocurable resin resulted in a smooth, transparent lens.

“We realized that the layers on top of each other created surface roughness. The layer thickness is typically 5 microns, while the wavelength of visible light is around 0.5 micron. This creates an optically rough surface,” explained Sun. “That was the bottleneck. The roughness made the lens incapable of clear optics.”

The group’s next goal is to expand their method to larger lenses and creating customized contact lenses for keratoconus patients. “The contact lens would feature the customized surface, matching it to the shape of the patient’s cornea,” Sun said.

Their work was published in the March 27 edition of Advanced Materials.

Essilor Pledges Eyeglass Lenses to Needy in the Commonwealth

Omicron 4: Sleek and Ladylike

R.A.C.E Hires Jay Weber as Sponsorship Marketing Manager

SILMO Paris 2018, So Much More than Just a Fair

Rapid 3D Printing of Lenses

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